Psalms 16:1-11: a reflection

1Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you. 2My soul, you have said to the LORD, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.” 3As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. 4Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take their names on my lips. 5The LORD assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure. 6The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. 7I will bless the LORD, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons. 8I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety. 10For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption. 11You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.

Psalm 16 is a psalm of deep contentment and joy in God, and its heart is the psalmist's declaration of where his good is found: I say to the LORD, You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you. And again: The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a beautiful inheritance. God himself, not circumstances or possessions, is the psalmist's portion, his good, his inheritance.

Notice where the psalmist locates his good and his joy: in God himself. Apart from you I have no good, he says, not merely, you give me good things, but you are my good; you are my portion. He has found that God himself, and not the things God gives, is his true treasure and satisfaction. And out of that flows a settled joy: my heart is glad; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Full joy is found in God's presence.

That is the secret of a contentment and joy that circumstances cannot shake. If our good is located in circumstances, possessions, or achievements, our joy rises and falls with them. But the psalmist has found his good in God himself, who does not change, and so his joy is secure. In God's presence, he says, is fullness of joy. Learn to say with the psalmist, You are my portion; apart from you I have no good. Seek your deepest satisfaction and joy not in what God gives but in God himself, and find the fullness of joy that is in his presence, and does not depend on anything else.

Lord, the psalmist found his good and his joy not in circumstances or possessions but in you: apart from you I have no good thing; in your presence is fullness of joy. Teach me to say that. Where I have located my good in things that rise and fall, help me find it in you, my portion, who does not change. Draw my deepest satisfaction and joy to yourself, so that my joy is secure whatever my circumstances. In your presence is fullness of joy; let me seek it there, in you.